Blitzcrank Build

Table of Contents

Abilities

This ability makes blitzcrank very durable early game, and gives a couple extra seconds of fighting power throughout the whole game. This passive makes straight +mana runes seem very good for blitzcrank, and you would be right. They increase the amount of grips he can toss early and makes him very hard to kill without getting him a good distance from his tower. Depending on the direction you are taking blitz for the game, and which map you are playing on, decides if you can spare the rune slots for a better early game over a stronger mid/late game.

Rocket Grab(Q): Blitzcrank fires his right hand, if it encounters an enemy unit it will stun them and deal 60 / 120 / 180 / 240 / 300(+.8 per ability power) magic damage while he pulls them to himself.

Cooldown 22/21/20/19/18 seconds
Cost 140 Mana
Range 1050

Notes: This is your namesake, your bread and butter and pretty much the reason you choose the automaton at the character screen. This completely destroys opponent formations and stratagies while giving your team alot of options of initiation and control over a team fight. Learning to use this effecivtly will lead to complete domination and pages of victories.

I suggest alot of practice games against bots just learning some basic movement trying to grip them over and over. Then find a friend and tell him to do his best to avoid all grips, and just keep trying until you can basically get a good feeling for human momvement and learn to predict what they are going to do. But each person is different, its a big difference trying to grip a offensive player and a conservative player.

Notes: This ability is a great ability for chasing and fleeing, but it also adds ALOT of attack speed and can either add alot of damage to a group fight or knock down a tower very, very quickly.

Alot of guides wait to take this ability last, mine included, because while it is a great ability is almost every aspect...your other abilities are even better and its just hard to give up the points. Its definetly worth the 1 point at level 4 and should always be taken then.

Power Fist(E): Blitzcrank charges up his fist to make his next attack deal double his base attack damage and pop his target up in the air.

Cooldown 9/8/7/6/5 seconds
Cost 25 Mana
Range 300

Notes: Easily one of the best CC abilities in the game, very low cooldown...and very disruptive. Can stop all channeling abilities while also making it very hard for an opponent to flee. An important note is that the knockup will penetrate through spell shiels, ie Banshee's Veil and Spell Shield etc, which makes you the best champion in stopping ultimates like nunu and fiddle.

Not only is this ability great at CC but its a heavy hitter as well, doubling his BASE ATTACK DAMAGE, not damage from items or sheen damage, resulting is pretty hefty numbers.

Notes:This ultimate is very strong. Its passive ticks every 2.5 seconds are very strong and add alot to champion dps, while the active takes a decent chunk out of everything around him.(just want everyone to know, while I write this the oldies radio I'm forced to listen to at work just started playing the ghostbusters theme song, my day just became awesome)

The first thing I have to say about this ability from watching other people play blitzcrank, is that never open with this ability. I get frustrated when I watch players who think ALL the damage is in the AoE active when theres so much passive damage being tossed around when you just let it tick. Counter point on that subject, you can't be too stingy with it in a 3-5 group fight. Because while it is still doing damage, the amount you can do to so many targets can and will change the tide of the fight on occasion and will cause some of them to start running or stop your teammates from giving in.

**Refered to as "Ultimate"

Introduction

***PLEASE READ***
This guide is currently out dated, please don't not vote good or bad on its current condition. Although I would love any ideas you might have as a comment to this guide. Thanks for reading, hope I still helped a little bit :P

Deepscrank:

Deeps(dps)crank is generally how I play him in the 3v3 map, as while he can still be tanky more or less. You need as much damage and gank power you can get in that map.

You are still always the initiator and will more then likely end up tanking alot of the damage that gets thrown around unless you get with a shen, who is crazy in TT. In the perfect world you will want to grip the highest dps target and grip him to all 3 of you while you kill him in a quick fist.

I've seen both crit and armor pen routes work well, but I perfer the armor pen route to help with tower damage and have a more consistant damage output rather then chunky. Although I read somewhere that armor pen no longer works on tower, I'll have to test it and update.

Armor pen also increases damage against tanky characters, which you find alot of in TT. IE Mord,Shen,Mundo.

Blitztank:

This is the way I play blitzcrank in 5v5, hes a tank but while he is definitely not the most durable tank he is the tank with the most utility although Alistair is a close second. Items that both increase his health pool and his mana pool are very strong on this toon, just like singed, as he benefits quite strongly from both sources. You can take a lot more damage and punishment then a carry or a support toon but without a lot of item budget for armor/magic resist, sometimes you will take more damage then you thought.

Blitzcranks power is all in the initiation and complete fucking lane domination. Theres no reason the other lane should come close to any creeps during the lane phase, depending on who your partner is. You useally want to go with someone with a stun or other CC ability.

There are alot of routes you can take with blitz depending on the group setup your team decided on and what the opponent team is running. When my team runs triple tank for the laning phase, you can useally go straight for the triforce as you won't have to be the only one worrying about your carries.

General:

However you build your blitzcrank, he'll end up being the initiator and being out front makes you the tank. Don't ignore defensive items, and make sure you protect your carry. After you start a fight and pull an unlucky soul (don't grip the cow, I know he's always in the way but try to get around him heh) which your team quickly destroys, your job is you punch their carry and run back and punch whoever is beating on your carry...then attempt to grip them off your carry back to the middle of the clusterfuck.

Masteries + Runes

Deepscrank:
For Masteries a deep offence tree is obvious, with last 9 points in defence to increase survivability just that little bit. I useally take the armor, magic resist and the little bit of health regen.

Rune wise I generally have full armor pen runes in reds and quints, and I use mana regen/level in yellows and blues to increase the frequency of grips and not running oom from punching on cooldown.

I'm sure running a crit chance page could be effective, but at the moment I don't take any mana regen items so I would fine myself very oom after only a grip or two.

Blitztank:
For Masteries it depends on your team comp, either going deep in defence or utility. Either way are strong routes for blitz as a 9/0/21 build gives great magic pen, while lowering the cooldown on grip as much as possible. While a 0/21/9 can take ALOT more punishment and control team fights for much longer. Again its all personal perferance and team comp.

For the Runes if I'm in a team with a much more beefy main tank like a alistar or rammus I'll useally take magic resist in reds, and mana regen/level in yellows and blues while having static health in quints.

If I'm playing the main tank role, I will run with magic resistance in reds and blues, health/level in yellows and static health in quints.

Summoner Spells

For Summoner Spells, I really like Flash and Exhaust, nothing beats them imo.

5v5:
After gripping a champion into a tower in the early game, landing a exhaust is almost always a kill.

3v3:
While gripping into a tower on the 3v3 map is much less likely, griping a carry over a ledge is pretty strong and allows for a pretty decent push.

Exhaust is always amazing for ganking or against ganks, which is 90% of TT.

PS. Now that flash grip has been "fixed" (was not a problem imo) and no longer works, flash might not be your go to summoner spell. I've been testing a lot of different combinations lately and having lots of fun with Ghost and Clairvoyance for premades. My pugs usually see me continuing to rock the Flash and Exhaust because you can't cry on vent for help in a pug :P.

Skilling Order

1a (Duo) - Grip > For ganking reasons with a parnter with either a stun or slow.b (Solo) - Punch > For last hitting and quick harassment to assert authority over the creeps. You won't be getting a gank as solo with grip outside of pulling to tower, and you will be level 2 by the time the creeps get close enough.

2 - Grip/Punch > Clearly whatever you didn't pick up at level 1.

3 - Speed > You have enough tools to gank already, a speed boost this early is very strong.

Although Deepscrank and Blitztank play completely different, in terms of dps and survivabily. The skilling order for both blitzcranks are identical because your blitzcrank, and you just grip and pop baby.

Items

Deepscrank Item list:

Core

> Sapphire Crystal Extra mana for more grips, and a beefy mana shield to avoid early ganks, is win imo.
> Health Potion To stay in the lane longer, of course.
> Boots of Speed I'm going to go with "duh" on this one.
> Sheen Very strong early game for last hitting and harassing.

> Ninja Tabi Mercury's Treads The map on TT is very small so movement speed isn't as important, so picking up the best defense boots is a wise choice. On 5v5 I find movement speed monumentally important as blitzcrank as one of the slowest base movement speeds in the game, which makes either Boots of Mobility or Boots of Swiftness wise choices.

Path A Your basic balls to the wall damage build.

> Phage While the slow is a proc and not as reliable as movement speed increase for chasing, the extra health really helps with avoiding ganks on TT.
> Zeal Once you finish this part of the Triforce you should be able to finish it as the combine cost is only 300g
> Trinity Force This item is just amazing for blitz spamming and general ganking potential.
> Last Whisper After the triforce I pick up the last whisper to increase attack speed very high for not just group fights but dropping a tower like nothing, and the armor pen really decimates the tanky champions on TT.

Path B You have a squishy team, and while you still do alot of damage you need to soak some up as well.

> Leviathan Nice snowball, getting assists on blitzcrank is pretty easy in most team fights.
> Phage While the slow is a proc and not as reliable as movement speed increase for chasing, the extra health really helps with avoiding ganks on TT.
> Zeal Once you finish this part of the Triforce you should be able to finish it as the combine cost is only 300g
> Trinity Force This item is just amazing for blitz spamming and general ganking potential.
> Atma's Impaler
If it lasts long enough
> Aegis of the Legion Great item adding survivability to your whole team.
> Guardian Angel Two lives on TT makes alot of group fights a 4v3. Very strong item.

Blitztank Item list:

Core

> Sapphire Crystal Extra mana for more grips, and a beefy mana shield to avoid early ganks, is win imo.
> Health Potion To stay in the lane longer, of course.
> Boots of Speed I'm going to go with "duh" on this one.
> Sheen Very strong early game for last hitting and harassing.

> Boots of Mobility Replaces Teleport, almost always pick these up. maybe mercenaries if the enemy team is a pita.

Path A You already got some kills and are completely dominating your lane.

> Zeal I like this part first better then phage, while the random slow is nice...this one always makes you faster then the one your chasing and you don't have to hope for lucky procs.
> Phage The Extra life is nice, but you will probably go straight to triforce as you make this since the combination cost is only 300g.
> Trinity Force This item is just everything you could want, movement speed, hard punches, slow procs, mana and health, its just tons of awesomeness in one item. If only it stacked :)

Path A 1 Your team already has a great tank in Alistar/Rammus, and you just want more damage.

> Last Whisper Adds some decent damage to your punch, but increaes your tower pushing power through the roof.
> The Black Cleaver The game is useally over by now, but more armor reduction for the punches and increasing your carries dps on your target is a good as its going to get for dps blitztank.

Path A 2 Your early game was awesome, Triforce is a beast. But your still the tank.

> Banshee's Veil After you get your triforce, your damage is going to be already decent enough for a tank to carry you to the end of the game. From here on out you are going to build some defensive items. And nothign beats the Veil.
> Aegis of the Legion Cheap and all kinds of sexy. Just make sure your the only one of your team building one.
> From here its completely up to you, I've never had a game go further then this. You could pick up abit more damage from a Last Whisper to finish your pushes. Or you could pick up a [item=Soul Shroud] or Frozen Heart to help your team out while increasing your tanking potential for the team fights.

Path B Laning wasen't amazing, or group fights are starting early and you need to start tanking righ away.

> Banshee's Veil This item is amazing on blitztank and almost always a staple.
> Aegis of the Legion Again, great item. Not only increaes your lifespan, but that of your teams while giving a small damage boost for the cherry on top.

Path B 1 You've tanked the last couple group fights and you guys are dominating them.

> Trinity Force This will add alot to your carry killing strength, and overall effect of the fights.

Path B 2 You guys arn't doing amazing in the group fights and need to regroup.

> Sunfire Cape For Armor Carries. Guardian Angel For Magic Carries. At this point, choose the right item and you need to get in those carries faces and FORCE them to deal with you before getting to your back row. Show those damn squishy kids that the robot wants to play, and let your carries just clean up behind you steam rolling.

Those are the basic paths I take, I hate the idea of just one set list of items that you are expected to always buy. Each game is different and you need to feel what works for you and build accordingly.

Grip Techniques

Okay Gripping, the only reason to play Blitztank tbh (other then praying they make an Optimus Prime skin). And it defines if your a good player or not.

The first thing EVERY SINGLE blitz needs to learn, and almost none notice, is that the grip comes out of your right hand not the middle of your body. So going around to the right of the creeps you can leave 80% of your fat robot ass behind some creeps and get that grab they really didn't see coming. But another problem with this is that going on the left side of the creeps you have to over extend.

Also note that because of this, his grip is ever so slightly outside the circle you see when you first click rocket grab as that circle is from the center of the robot and the grip reaches just alittle bit further. You will be surprised how many grips you can get that are outside the circle and yet get pulled back anyway.

Okay with that annoying point out of the way, some Techniques.

That other lanemate, the Tower: To a blitz, more often then not the tower is more important then your laning partner. If the players your against are pretty agreesive, let them be. Just let them push the mobs over and over again into tower range and fish like crazy. You will eventually hit somthing and its almost always GG for that toon. The most important thing you gotta remeber, if the tower is already shooting creeps then it WILL NOT switch to your grip target unless that player also hit you back, but more often then not they will either flash or run after getting hit with grip.

Fake: Please, Please, PLEASE fake your grips. Your not amazing and your opponent isn't stupid (most likely anyway :P). If you walk out and just toss a grip right where they're standing over and over your never going to hit him cause he's got tons of time to move due to a slow animation. So change your movements all the time and don't let him read you, cause your never going to get a nice grip off if he knows its coming.

Pre-emptive: Move around all the time, and watch your opponents. The best thing you can do early game is watch how and when they come in for last hits, cause you are going to get so many grips if you toss it early as they run to the mob, this is when the opponent thinks he can get in and get out before you can get the animation off.

Blind: You fucking bet I'm going to advise to blind grip, sure 75% of the time your not going to hit anything...but your not going to hit anything if you don't use it either. Over time your going to learn the run speeds of most toons and when you see them dive into that fog just toss that grip and hope for the best. When you do land that blind grip, you'll be so ecstatic that you'll never play anything but blitz again ;P. Don't get cocky though...know the ones that are just too far away and save the grip.

Point Blank: When your stuck in the 1v1 that you know you can't run away, or your ganking a loner trying to farm. Grip doesn't just pull the target to you, it does a chuck of nuke damage and stuns the target, its another form of DPS and CC even while their in your face so don't be afraid to just toss grips to kids already in your face.

Seckiest Lane Mates

If playing a premade, these are the kids your going to want to have playing with you.

5v5

Top Tier:
Alistar > Just think about it, you'll cry for the other team, no lie.
Sion > Grip, pop, stun, boom. Ya good fucking luck.
Pantheon > Been doing some with the Spartan and its actually very strong. Gives Leonidas tons of time between his stun and your knock up to get all 5 slashs in.
Udyr > Grip, pop, stun, pop, stun, pop, stun.../wrists.
Morgana > DAMN yous a sexy bitch.

If you have to:
Everything else with any kind of CC, its just ridiculous the control blitztank has in lane phase.

3v3
Your partners in TT arn't exactly lanemates as they are gankmates :P. Bringin kids with alot of control over the fight is very strong. Some champions I've found to be great for just steamrolling kids:

Shen > AoE taunt awhile your team destroys them? sounds like cash
Morde > This guy is crazy, first opponent goes down makes it a 4v2. Tanks damage like crazy while doing above decent amount of AoE magic damage.
Panth > Decent damage, decent surviabilty and good control. Also helpful for stopping shacos from LoLin your base.
Mundo > Cleaver is crazy good early game, and TT is 18 levels of early game. Also with only 3 hero choices and rarely a pure carry. There tends to be alot less healing reduction in the forms of gangplank and trist.

Others are also amazing, those are just the ones I've recently played very strong games with.

Notes

Random Points I keep thinking of :P :

> Punch goes through Veil, abuse it.
> Last hit, ALOT. Other then last hitting the whole game your farming blows.
> Sheen Only effects your base damage, not the punch damage.
> Your Ultimate does ALOT of damage when exploded, whipes creeps waves and always worth hitting if you know your going to die anyway.
> Your not there to farm kills, your there to pull the target to your carry whoes there to farm kills. Just pretend your the spoon, the twitch is the food and your carry is starving.
> Even when the dps build, your still a heavy support...a half decent full on carry will still rip your shit 1v1 :P.

Change Log

Change Notes here.
This guide will be constantly updated with new and awesome golemness. I don't imagine I'm ever going to stop maining blitzcrank. You can't really nerf him...unless suddenly the grip only pulls halfway to you ;P.
______________________________________________________